Chapter 415

At this time, the speaker volume on the phone was quite loud, and Li Long had good hearing, so he could clearly hear what the guard said and what the person on the other end replied.

"... He says he's here to seek a collaboration with us? Is it a technical collaboration, or does he want us to help him make something?"

"A technical collaboration." The guard's comprehension was actually quite good, and he clearly conveyed Li Long's idea. "He has something he wants to make, and he likely wants to join forces with our factory to produce it together." After finishing, the guard turned his head to look at Li Long:

"I didn't get that wrong, did I?"

"No, that's exactly right." Li Long smiled. "That's the idea. I think there's a very good market for this item; it's convenient, and I believe many people will use it. I provide the technology, your factory provides the machinery and equipment for manufacturing, and we split the profits."

The guard relayed Li Long's subsequent words to the other party.

"He provides the technology? Which school did he graduate from?" the person on the other end immediately asked.

"I'm a farmer. I'm self-taught and did the research myself." Li Long answered immediately without waiting for the guard to relay it.

"He says he's a farmer, hasn't attended a specialized school, and learned and researched it himself."

"Then what kind of experience does he have? For example, experience working in a repair shop or a farm machinery factory?"

"None, but I am a farmer, I've been working in the countryside, and I have a very good understanding of farmers' needs." Li Long knew this was his weakness. Even in the 2020s of the future, job recruitment still prioritized those with experience, let alone in this era.

"So he has nothing at all and is just talking big? Then forget it." The person in the Technical Section rejected him directly. "Tell him we have many urgent research tasks here and no time to listen to him talk about ideals, designs, and concepts. Tell him to go try his luck at the township repair shops or farm machinery factories in their area."

Li Long heard this, and he felt a bit disappointed.

They weren't even willing to meet him once.

Although he had some mental preparation in his heart, being rejected so directly still made him feel a bit down.

The series of things he had encountered since his rebirth weren't without setbacks. When he first met Li Xiangqian to sell sheep, there were difficulties then too, but at least the other party gave him a chance to try.

Now, the other party wouldn't even give him a chance.

In the tractor factory's Technical Section, technician Xiao Wei hung up the phone, took the pencil tucked behind his ear, and continued studying the blueprints.

He wasn't wrong; the tractor factory's research tasks were indeed very heavy. At this time, the Northern Xinjiang region in the Northwest and the Northeast were the key areas for the implementation of domestic agricultural mechanization. They were all large tracts of strip fields, especially suitable for mechanized development. To increase grain production and promote the process of agricultural modernization, the tasks of various farm machinery factories were extremely heavy.

For a considerable time in the future, the Shicheng tractor factory would not have to worry about orders, and they were also gradually promoting new agricultural machinery. It was just that later on, they slowly couldn't keep up with the pace; the mentality of resting on their laurels still existed.

"Where was that call from?" Xiao Wei's master, He Gong, an old technician who had been there since the tractor factory's predecessor, the auto repair shop, turned his head to ask.

"A farmer at the factory gate said he wanted to talk about collaboration with us, saying he'd provide the technology and we'd produce it... A person who hasn't attended a professional school and has no similar work experience says he wants to talk about collaboration with us. Isn't that just talking nonsense?" Xiao Wei told this to his master as a joke.

"You can't say that." He Gong listened and said sternly, "The wisdom of the working people cannot be underestimated! Back when we were doing auto repairs, there were some faults we didn't know how to troubleshoot, but a single word from the frontline masters might have provided the inspiration... Did he say what he wanted to collaborate with us on?"

"No," although Xiao Wei was a bit dismissive of his master's words, his master's authority was still very heavy at this time, so he hurriedly said:

"Should I call the gate and ask?"

"Ask. Although our tractor factory has expanded, our foundation is not as good as those factories in the interior, and our development direction is a bit singular. If there are relatively suitable ideas, we can also adopt them."

Xiao Wei hurriedly called the guard. The line was busy, and when he dialed again after waiting for a while, the guard said that the person had already left.

"If he comes again later, invite him in to have a chat." He Gong reminded Xiao Wei, "The things we design need to be used by frontline farmers. Their feedback is the most authentic; don't underestimate anyone."

"Master, I understand," Xiao Wei said respectfully.

By this time, Li Long had already left the tractor factory and headed toward the old street.

Since this tractor factory didn't need his creative ideas, he would find other ways.

The county also had a farm machinery repair shop; if all else failed, he would go to that repair shop in the township to make a few samples first. It seemed that it really wasn't easy to make a little money by relying on his "foresight" regarding farm machinery from the future.

Li Long took a vehicle back to Maxian. Seeing that it was time for lunch, he went to Yang Da Jie's place. After eating, he went to the county farm machinery repair shop.

The scale of the county farm machinery repair shop was much smaller than the Shicheng tractor factory. Li Long just explained his purpose, and the guard let him in.

Here, there was a row of single-story houses. The snow in the courtyard was cleared very cleanly. Several pieces of farm machinery were placed to the side. In the workshop behind, there were sounds of machinery operating, the sound of sledgehammers being swung and hitting, and so on.

Li Long went to the office and found the Technical Section door locked. He asked an older sister in the office, and she pointed to the workshop behind, saying the people were over there.

Li Long left the single-story house and came to the workshop behind. This was actually a large shed, enclosed on all four sides, but the workshop door was open. Although it was bustling with activity inside and there was a stove for heating, Li Long could feel that the temperature was not high, and the workers were also relying on constant labor to keep their bodies warm.

Not a good sign.

As soon as Li Long entered the workshop, someone came over to ask him:

"Comrade, who are you looking for?"

"Is the technician here? I have something I'd like to discuss."

"Technician Zhao, Technician Zhao, someone is looking for you!" the young man who was clearly an apprentice shouted loudly.

A man in his thirties walked out from among the people working. He was wearing oil-stained gloves, and there was a patch of grease on his face. Li Long noticed that he had been dismantling the engine casing of a diesel engine with several other people.

"Hello, I'm the technician here. You are..." Technician Zhao looked Li Long over and asked.

"I'm a farmer from our county. I've designed a relatively convenient farm tool and would like to collaborate with our factory."

Li Long felt a bit out of place talking about this here, but since he had come, he still needed to talk about it.

"What kind of farm tool?" Upon hearing it was a farm tool, this technician was actually quite interested and asked, "What is it used for?"

After asking, without waiting for Li Long to answer, he turned his head and said to the few people who were still busy over there:

"You guys stop for a moment, I have a small matter here."

"It's a handheld seed planter." Li Long said, biting the bullet. He now realized that if he didn't state what the item was and just talked about collaboration in the abstract, the other party would be the same as the people at the tractor factory and turn him away.

"This, it's actually a bit interesting." Technician Zhao thought for a moment and said:

"Making a few might be useful, but there's no way to apply it on a large scale. Our county's planting is now mainly large-scale agricultural mechanization, and seeders almost cover the planting of all major crops. This thing of yours can only be used on small plots of land, such as vegetable plots or private plots; the prospects aren't great."

A single sentence dismissed Li Long's idea, which made Li Long a bit unconvinced.

Without waiting for him to argue or refute, Technician Zhao continued:

"You might think that we are relatively free in winter, but in reality, this is the time when we are relatively busy. Those farm machines that could barely be dragged and used in summer and autumn are now idle and have all been sent to us for repair. Look, diesel engines and other high-tech items, as well as track chains, plowshares, seeder parts, etc., which have no technical content and can be handled by blacksmith shops, are also placed here for us to repair. We simply don't have the time, energy, or manpower to do this. So... I think you can go to the repair shops or blacksmith shops in your township and take a look."

The same suggestion, said in a different tone, but in short, they didn't think highly of the handheld seed planter Li Long mentioned. The other party was very polite, and Li Long wouldn't throw out any "just you wait" adolescent remarks. He said goodbye and left. Li Long felt a bit depressed again this time.

Could it be that he really could only make a few for his own use, and then watch as imitations slowly spread across the market one by one?

Li Long was a little unwilling. Although his creative ideas also came from another world, he really didn't want it to turn out like this.

After all, he was very clear that although the market share of this kind of handheld seed planter wasn't very large, it wasn't small either. For a large factory like the Shicheng tractor factory, the profit might not be great, but for a farm machinery factory, it should be quite significant.

And the potential was great; it was something that could be sold continuously for a few years, a dozen years, or even twenty or thirty years.

Seeing something with hope, prospects, market potential, and profit, but no one to collaborate with, Li Long was truly a bit unwilling.

No way, when he went back, he would just make a few for his own family to use. This opportunity would most likely have to be let go.

In the evening, Gu Xiaoxia returned. Seeing that Li Long was unhappy at the dinner table, she asked him what was wrong.

Li Long told her the whole story. Gu Xiaoxia frowned slightly and said:

"Is it... the wrong timing?"

"The wrong timing?"

"Yes, think about it. It was only last year that production was contracted to households, and this year it's said that land contracting is happening, which means all the large tracts of land are to be handed over to us farmers to plant. Large tracts of land, those are ten, twenty, or even a hundred mu of land. If you really have to plant them by hand, when would you finish?

!.

Now every village has seeders, and everyone is used to using seeders to plant crops. In the eyes of farm machinery technicians, what you're talking about is a regression in history."

"A regression in history?" Li Long savored these words. Was it?

"Yes, think about it. For example, you want to plant melon seeds, because melon seeds can't be planted with our current seeders, right?" Gu Xiaoxia said.

"Yes, that's why I'm making this handheld seed planter." Li Long nodded.

"Then your thinking and the thinking of those farm machinery technicians are different. You're thinking about how to solve the problem, how to make it convenient, and how to get it done. They are also thinking about solving the problem, but they're thinking about how to make it advanced—they must be thinking about how to design a machine that can be driven by a tractor to plant melon seeds on a large scale, right?"

"Hmm... that makes sense." Li Long realized it. Gu Xiaoxia was right; the farm machinery technicians must be thinking that way.

This was definitely a regression in history for him—in the hands of farm machinery research and development personnel, it certainly was.

Later, there began to be seed planters and drill planters specifically for cotton, which were developed by farm machinery technicians and could be driven by tractors.

Everyone else was thinking about how to mechanize, and he was doing the opposite, thinking about how to use manual labor to plant seeds. Naturally, he wouldn't be welcomed.

Alright, he was the one who had thought about it the wrong way.

But this didn't mean that the thing he designed wouldn't work, just that it couldn't become the mainstream. As a supplement to agricultural mechanization, it was still okay. After all, agricultural mechanization required a process and couldn't be achieved overnight. In this process, in places where mechanization couldn't be achieved, what he had created could play a transitional role.

Li Long suddenly saw the light and said to Gu Xiaoxia with a smile:

"Xiaoxia, you're amazing. Once you put it that way, I understood. You didn't spend your time in the Education Bureau in vain; your horizons have broadened, and your perspective on problems is different too. Not bad, not bad! Well said!"

This was the first time Li Long had praised Gu Xiaoxia like this. She was very happy, feeling a little proud and also a bit shy. She lowered her head to pick up food and said:

"Actually, I was just speaking from my feelings; whether it's right or not is hard to say."

"Right, right, right, that's the logic. I understand. Come, come, come, let's eat. Let's chat while we eat. I have another question I'd like to discuss with you..."

In the past, when Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia ate and talked together, it was mostly about things in the village, or just listening to Gu Xiaoxia's work troubles and sharing some joys, or Li Long's hunting, fishing, or what he had seen in Wucheng. Exchanges like this were not many, and one could even say they didn't exist.

Li Long knew that for a man and woman to start a family, communication and exchange were indispensable. But previous exchanges were mostly superficial. Only by analyzing and discussing problems together like this, and with a certain depth, could it be considered effective communication and exchange.

If communication remained on the surface, it would inevitably have a certain negative impact on the feelings of both parties because the degree of integration between them was not enough, making it easy to create estrangement.

This kind of exchange now really increased their understanding of each other and also made life more tacit.

The next morning, when Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia met, they both smiled. Although nothing had happened all night, they felt that their understanding of each other was deeper; it was like a contact of souls.

Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Li Long took the New Year's goods and other things back to the team. His older brother and sister-in-law still had opinions about Li Long buying so many things again, complaining that he was spending money recklessly. Li Juan and Li Qiang, on the other hand, couldn't put down the gifts Li Long had bought. Especially Li Qiang; after putting on that set of clothes, he didn't want to take them off and insisted on wearing them out to show his friends. It was only when Liang Yuemei waved her hand that he reluctantly took them off.

It was only after Li Jianguo told him he could wear them every day during the New Year period that Li Qiang stopped crying at home.

After putting the things away, Li Long stated his plan and then rode his bicycle to the township in the afternoon.

The scale of the farm machinery repair shop in the township was even smaller; it didn't even have a courtyard, and it was actually no different from a blacksmith shop.

There were only two people inside. The person in charge was Master Wang, whose full name was Wang Youde, and he had an apprentice—Li Long knew that this apprentice belonged to someone who came to learn repairs at their own expense, unlike Master Wang. Master Wang was considered a worker, the kind with a formal position and a salary, belonging to the township staff. Even if this farm machinery repair shop couldn't continue, he would most likely be transferred to the Agricultural Machinery Service Station, which was also an institution that the township had always had. After all, there was still a Farm Machinery Bureau in the county that needed to be connected upwards. But this apprentice would just have to go home.

However, in order to learn the technology, being an apprentice was also not bad, and even this apprentice position was a goal that many people competed for.

This person was relatively lucky.

"Make something? How many? How to make it? You tell me, I'll tell you, the labor cost isn't cheap." Although Master Wang had a position, he didn't reject doing some private work. After Li Long chatted with him for a few sentences, he gave up on talking about collaboration with him. If the technical personnel at the tractor factory and the county farm machinery repair shop would still think about the dream of agricultural mechanization, this Master Wang was purely working one day at a time, never thinking about what to do next. Moreover, according to the information he revealed, the farm machinery repair shop in the township was almost unable to continue; no one came here to repair things.

This was also a practical situation, because the Red Flag Commune was relatively close to the county, less than five kilometers away. Other townships were forty or fifty kilometers away or even further.

Now, the farm machinery operators in each village were different from those twenty or thirty years later; most of them knew some simple repairs. If there were problems they couldn't fix, Master Wang most likely couldn't fix them either—it wasn't just a technical problem, but also an equipment problem.

Therefore, if the farm machinery in the villages in the township had major problems, they were usually sent to the county. What could be done here was to make some small items, even to the point of grabbing business from the blacksmith shop.

So regarding the thing Li Long wanted to make, Master Wang only thought about how much extra money he could earn and wouldn't care about collaboration—he hadn't done farm work for many years, and he had no judgment at all about whether this thing had a market, nor would he think about judging it.

Li Long described it according to his own ideas, and Master Wang calculated and said:

"What you're talking about is easy to open, mainly welding. The accessories, like the springs, are not easy to get, but I can still make three or five of them here. Counting the material costs, labor costs... you give three yuan... three yuan and fifty cents each."

The iron on one seed planter added up to only one kilogram. At this time, if calculated according to material costs, it was one yuan and fifty cents to two yuan. He charged one yuan to one yuan and fifty cents for labor, which Li Long felt was okay.

After all, this was considered semi-monopolized; in other places, one could only find a blacksmith shop to do it, and they might not necessarily be able to make it.

"When can I pick it up?" Li Long asked while taking out money.

Seeing that Li Long was going to pay in cash, Master Wang became much more enthusiastic. He smiled and said:

"If you're in a hurry, you can come and get it tomorrow. Give me ten yuan first."

Li Long wasn't afraid that he wouldn't keep his word; at this time, there were relatively few people like that. Or rather, Li Long, even until the future, in his own township and village, had seen very few of the bizarre things in the countryside that he had seen in those short videos.

Things like not supporting parents, eating up the family's last resources, sprinkling poison in fish ponds, or snatching other people's cash crops like fruits or medicinal herbs.

The most farcical scene he had seen was just the implementation of drip irrigation on land in the village, the land contracting fee skyrocketing, and then two brothers fighting over planting their parents' land, which was still suppressed by the team leader and several old villager representatives.

Only this once. Li Long had never heard of anything else that was particularly bizarre. In general, the moral level of the people in the village was still quite good. (End of chapter)